Here’s the thing: massage is meant to be therapeutic and enjoyable. You should be able to quickly get to the point of looking forward to a massage in much the same way you’d look forward to a holiday! It’s your moment to relax, rejuvenate and let go of stress.

As we approach the start of a new year, now is a perfect time for you to look back at 2018, evaluate your successes and where you might not have hit the mark, when it comes to your health and wellness.

The connection between health, wellness, and your working life is deep. Stress from trying to achieve a usually elusive work/life balance, financial concerns, not working in a job that fulfills you… These are all aspects of our everyday lives that can affect our physical and mental health.

With National Massage Therapy Awareness Week coming up from October 21 to the 27, we thought it would be a good time to review some of the benefits of massage therapy. You might have the perception that massage therapy is just about ‘feeling good,’ and you would be right, but that isn’t the whole picture!

The irony is that the one thing that most adults want to find under the tree this year isn’t more ‘stuff.’ It’s time. Time to read a book, time to take a long, hot bubble bath. Time with friends and family, laughing and having a good… well, not to put too fine a point on it, time! We can’t actually give time to our friends and family, but we can motivate them to spend more time on self-care and improvement.

The stores are starting to get geared up for the holidays so now is a good time to plan how you’re going to manage a time period that is often fun but can also be stressful. Self-care tends to be the last thing on our already busy holiday lists of things to do, but it shouldn’t be. You can’t be present and enjoy the holidays if you’re worn out by November.

Finding a way to spread a little kindness isn’t hard; all you have to do is commit yourself to doing it and you’ll see the opportunities present themselves left, right and center! Be the start of a kindness ripple effect: it will come back to you again and again!

As the weather starts to change and get cooler, so do viruses! They come out of their summer hibernation and begin to look for warmer hosts, like our bodies! With the start of school and spending more time indoors in inclement weather, passing those viruses along to one another becomes more likely too. There are several ways you can minimize your chances of picking up a cold or flu virus, with just a little more self-care and effort.

"The main message here for tension headache sufferers is to put together a series of targeted massage sessions which seek to alleviate the muscle tension and accumulated stress contributing to the cause of the headaches,” says Elements Massage Chief Wellness Officer, Eric Stephenson. He adds, “committing to multiple sessions over a short period of time can yield cumulative effects which can be felt in decreased frequency, duration and pain levels.”

Self-care is vital, however. Without it, you can become unmotivated at best or burnt out and plain unhealthy, at worst. Taking care of yourself by adding some stress relieving activities into your weekly schedule isn’t selfish or self-indulgent. It’s crucial to your physical and mental health! You can’t be a good parent, child, sibling, friend or worker if you’re tearing your hair out at the root and losing sleep!

It’s your personal monthly subscription to a better you.

Imagine a place dedicated to helping you be the very best version of you. That’s exactly the kind of treatment that awaits you as a member of the Elements Wellness Program™. Where everything is done just for you, by hand, exactly the way you imagined.

The Elements Promise™ is not transferable and may not be redeemed for cash, bartered or sold. Void where prohibited or otherwise restricted by law. Substitute massage session equal in value and duration to original massage session; gratuity not included. Substitute massage session cannot be combined with any other offer. Other restrictions may apply; see individual studios for details.